Like much of America, they accept the cliches and slogans about American medicine. “It’s the best in the world.” “People are being denied treatment.” “We must take care of our citizens.”

How about this far more accurate slogan: “Let’s force more Americans to die in the care of doctors.”

The American healthcare system, like clockwork, causes a mind-boggling number of deaths every year.

On July 26, 2000, the US medical community received a titanic shock, when one of its most respected public-health experts, Dr. Barbara Starfield, revealed her findings on healthcare in America. Starfield was associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

The Starfield study, “Is US health really the best in the world?”, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, came to the following conclusions:

Every year in the US there are:

* 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;

* 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;

* 20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;

* 80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;

* 106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.

The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000. That’s 2.25 MILLION deaths per decade.

The Starfield paper can be downloaded freely (as a .pdf) from here (via http://www.drug-education.info). The paper is fully cited as Starfield B. Is US health really the best in the world?. JAMA. 2000; 284(4):483-4. Dr. Barbara Starfield’s wiki page is here.

This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.

The Starfield study is the most disturbing revelation about modern healthcare in America ever published in the mainstream.

On the heels of Starfield’s astonishing findings, media reporting was rather perfunctory, and it soon dwindled. No major newspaper or television network mounted an ongoing “Medicalgate” investigation. Neither the US Department of Justice nor federal health agencies undertook prolonged remedial action.

All in all, those parties who could have taken effective steps to correct this situation preferred to ignore it.

On December 6-7, 2009, I interviewed Dr. Starfield by email. Here are excerpts from that interview.

What has been the level and tenor of the response to your findings, since 2000?

The American public appears to have been hoodwinked into believing that more interventions lead to better health, and most people that I meet are completely unaware that the US does not have the ‘best health in the world’.

In the medical research community, have your medically-caused mortality statistics been debated, or have these figures been accepted, albeit with some degree of shame?

The findings have been accepted by those who study them. There has been only one detractor, a former medical school dean, who has received a lot of attention for claiming that the US health system is the best there is and we need more of it. He has a vested interest in medical schools and teaching hospitals (they are his constituency).

Have health agencies of the federal government consulted with you on ways to mitigate the [devastating] effects of the US medical system?

NO.

Since the FDA approves every medical drug given to the American people, and certifies it as safe and effective, how can that agency remain calm about the fact that these medicines are causing 106,000 deaths per year?

Even though there will always be adverse events that cannot be anticipated, the fact is that more and more unsafe drugs are being approved for use. Many people attribute that to the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is (for the past ten years or so) required to pay the FDA for reviews [of its new drugs]—which puts the FDA into an untenable position of working for the industry it is regulating. There is a large literature on this.

Aren’t your 2000 findings a severe indictment of the FDA and its standard practices?

They are an indictment of the US health care industry: insurance companies, specialty and disease-oriented medical academia, the pharmaceutical and device manufacturing industries, all of which contribute heavily to re-election campaigns of members of Congress. The problem is that we do not have a government that is free of influence of vested interests. Alas, [it] is a general problem of our society—which clearly unbalances democracy.

Can you offer an opinion about how the FDA can be so mortally wrong about so many drugs?

Yes, it cannot divest itself from vested interests. (Again, [there is] a large literature about this, mostly unrecognized by the people because the industry-supported media give it no attention.)

Would it be correct to say that, when your JAMA study was published in 2000, it caused a momentary stir and was thereafter ignored by the medical community and by pharmaceutical companies?

Are you sure it was a momentary stir? I still get at least one email a day asking for a reprint—ten years later! The problem is that its message is obscured by those that do not want any change in the US health care system.

Are you aware of any systematic efforts, since your 2000 JAMA study was published, to remedy the main categories of medically caused deaths in the US?

No systematic efforts; however, there have been a lot of studies. Most of them indicate higher rates [of death] than I calculated.

What was your personal reaction when you reached the conclusion that the US medical system was the third leading cause of death in the US?

I had previously done studies on international comparisons and knew that there were serious deficits in the US health care system, most notably in lack of universal coverage and a very poor primary care infrastructure. So I wasn’t surprised.

Did your 2000 JAMA study sail through peer review, or was there some opposition to publishing it?

It was rejected by the first journal that I sent it to, on the grounds that ‘it would not be interesting to readers’!

Do the 106,000 deaths from medical drugs only involve drugs prescribed to patients in hospitals, or does this statistic also cover people prescribed drugs who are not in-patients in hospitals?

I tried to include everything in my estimates. Since the commentary was written, many more dangerous drugs have been added to the marketplace.

INTERVIEWER COMMENTS:

This interview with Dr. Starfield reveals that, even when an author has unassailable credentials within the medical-research establishment, the findings can result in no changes made to the system.

Many persons and organizations within the medical system contribute to the annual death totals of patients, and media silence and public ignorance are certainly major factors, but the FDA is the assigned gatekeeper, when it comes to the safety of medical drugs.

The buck stops there. If those drugs the FDA is certifying as safe are killing, like clockwork, 106,000 people a year, the Agency must be held accountable. The American people must understand that.

As for the other 119,000 people killed every year as a result of hospital treatment, this horror has to be laid at the doors of those institutions. Further, to the degree that hospitals are regulated and financed by state and federal governments, the relevant health agencies assume culpability.

It is astounding, as well, that the US Department of Justice has failed to weigh in on Starfield’s findings. If 225,000 medically caused deaths per year is not a crime by the Dept. of Justice’s standards, then what is?

To my knowledge, not one person in America has been fired from a job or even censured as result of these medically caused deaths.

Dr. Starfield’s findings have been available for ten years. She has changed the perception of the medical landscape forever. In a half-sane nation, she would be accorded a degree of recognition that would, by comparison, make the considerable list of her awards pale. And significant and swift action would have been taken to punish the perpetrators of these crimes and reform the system from its foundations.

The pharmaceutical giants stand back and carve up the populace into “promising markets.” They seek new disease labels and new profits from more and more toxic drugs. They do whatever they can—legally or illegally—to influence doctors in their prescribing habits. Many studies which show the drugs are dangerous are buried. FDA panels are filled with doctors who have drug-company ties. Legislators are incessantly lobbied and supported with pharma campaign monies.

Nutrition, the cornerstone of good health, is ignored or devalued by most physicians. Meanwhile, the FDA continues to attack nutritional supplements, even though the overall safety record of these nutrients is excellent, whereas, once again, the medical drugs the FDA certifies as safe are killing 106,000 Americans per year.

Physicians are trained to pay exclusive homage to peer-reviewed published drug studies. These doctors unfailingly ignore the fact that, if medical drugs are killing a million Americans per decade, the studies on which those drugs are based must be fraudulent. In other words, the whole literature is suspect, unreliable, and impenetrable.

Jon Rappoport

The author of two explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED and EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free emails at www.nomorefakenews.com

33 comments on “The Starfield Revelations”

I had some fun reading your post, and substituting ‘sick’ for most of the situations where the word ‘health’ was used, in order to see it in the correct context. I did find a few places where the word ‘health’ actually meant health. My favorite was: “Nutrition, the cornerstone of good health, is ignored or devalued by most physicians”. It’s a valid statement, but missing something. Did you know that a building has four corners? What are the other three cornerstones of health?

Physical Exercise is obvious. Mental and Spiritual exercise are another. The fourth is Community Involvement. It is also important to note that each of the keystones can be deficient, or in excess, both cases resulting in unhealthiness or illness.

For profit Corporations are legally mandated to focus first and foremost on returns (profits) to their owners / investors. When the incorporated (US) government is invested in / married to for profit corporations (pharma, insurance, defense) it would be counter to THEIR best interests to consider the welfare of consumers to be their primary (or even secondary) mandate. So a few hundred thousand die annually – it’s just the cost of doing business…
The question begged here of course is who owns the U.S. corporation?

IMO, a stronger question is, would our economy collapse or prosper if we did away with “Corporate personhood” for “big corps”?

Would our economy collapse or prosper if we made “big corps” very tightly regulated (*) by the state legislatures and state attorney generals — by requiring corp charters that “do no harm to individuals”.

(*) by ‘very tightly regulated’ in this manner, I mean giving “big corps” “NO due process of law” — by design.

There was supposedly a precedent for this in the early 1800s in America, somewhere, right?

Can we both protect the environment and still have free enterprise? Is free enterprise possible without ‘corp personhood’-based Big Corps?

~~~~

Trans-national corporations. Pay no taxes.

Big corps and Big gov (i.e., “public private partnerships”)

~~~

Imagine yanking Monsatan’s corp charter?! Yanked. You’re done. The military is currently securing their poperty. Beginning the impounding…. Indictments issued.

~~~~

Monsanto Company

Certificate of Incorporation

Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware, does hereby certify:

1. The name of the corporation is Monsanto Company. Monsanto Company was originally incorporated under the name “Monsanto Ag Company”, and the original Certificate of Incorporation was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware on February 9, 2000.

2. This Restated Certificate of Incorporation only restates and integrates and does not further amend the provisions of Monsanto Company’s Certificate of Incorporation as theretofore amended or supplemented and there is no discrepancy between the provisions of the Certificate of Incorporation as theretofore amended and supplemented and the provisions of this Restated Certificate. This Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Certificate of Incorporation”) was duly adopted in accordance with the provisions of Section 245 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.

3. The text of the Certificate of Incorporation is hereby restated and integrated to read in its entirety as follows:

ARTICLE I

The name of the corporation (which is hereinafter referred to as the “Corporation”) is: Monsanto Company

ARTICLE II

The address of the Corporation’s registered office in the State of Delaware is 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington, Delaware 19808, County of New Castle. The name of the Corporation’s registered agent at such address is Corporation Service Company.

ARTICLE III

The purpose of the Corporation shall be to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized and incorporated under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.

[snip]

ARTICLE XI

The Corporation elects not to be governed by Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware until the first date on which Pharmacia Corporation and its affiliates cease to beneficially own 15 percent or more of the total voting power of the outstanding shares of all classes of capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors, at which time Section 203 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware shall apply to the Corporation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, Monsanto Company has caused this Restated Certificate of Incorporation to be executed by David F. Snively, its Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel, this 16th day of April, 2013.

As long as We account for energy via a money system, We will see this. Those who value money and the power over Others it affords over Human concern (the psychopaths amongst Us) WILL be the Ones promoted in the system. They will do ANYTHING to gain the money/power.

Again, Jon, the solution is at hand as We JUST NOW in Our history have the technology to change it up – to vastly the better.

And again, for readers who have not yet moved outside the money system box, I offer the links to the short articles I have written which describe the solution:

“The love of money is the root of all evil; remove the soil in which the root grows…”
“If the universe is made of mostly “dark” energy…can We use it to run Our cars?”
“If You want peace, take the PROFIT out of war.”

Interesting the way Reagan created an ethos that private sector provides better service and more cheaply than the public sector. That may have been true back then due to complacency and job security in the public sector. What we had was a private sector that started out selling an improved product to get people to buy, but that now being the only game in town careens out of control with its efficient destruction of people and any government efforts to stop it. Healthcare is just one example of it. It is a cheaper, more profitable investment to kill you slowly with medicines and in private hospitals than to keep you healthy. Until they are forced to help people or the government steps back into the market with some muscle, we will not see improvement. Welcome to the machine

Feb. 10, 2014 Dear Jon Rappoport: I remember that on a website called http://www.fireyourMDnow.com the author puts the number of doctor deaths at over 700,000 but I can’t access the website now. Also, Dr.Rima Laibow of http://www.healthfreedomusa.org says pharmaceutical drug deaths alone are over 200,000. But your point is good. Drug companies own the media so this news doesn’t get out. yours truly, Roger Fuller

[…] Does anyone else recognize what’s happening in the US? First, vaccine makers could not be held liable for vaccine injury or side effects, including death. Then they invent drugs that can track whether or not you’re taking them as prescribed, along with mandatory insurance. In the City of Chicago, one of the pilot areas for this sort of “health” care, if your doctor prescribes a drug that you refuse to take due to side effects, opting instead for a natural remedy, then you can be fined each month per incident of non-compliance. And now … the “Supreme” “Court” rules that drug companies get a free pass on law suits from 80% of all drugs. BigPharma and Traditional Medicine kill 225,000 Americans each year (106,000 deaths from FDA-approved, correctly prescribed medicines). […]